Black Bullet - Volume 1 - Chapter 3.3

3

When they threw the dry branches they had gathered into the bonfire, the fire revived and rapturously scattered orange light on the stone walls. Once Rentaro used his emergency kit to stop the bleeding and disinfect and bandage the wound, the wound started regenerating with help from the Gastrea virus. However, her regeneration speed was very modest compared to Enju’s.

Afraid the enemy would approach while he was treating the girl, he had Enju stand watch. However, Enju seemed put out for some reason and pouted, saying, “I don’t accept that girl!” and “If it were me, my wound would’ve healed in three seconds!” as she went outside the pillbox shelter. Rentaro wanted to say that three seconds was too short, but she seemed really unhappy, so he didn’t.

The girl’s name was Kayo Senju. Rentaro was astounded at himself for not knowing the name of the girl he had thought of as the “hungry girl” until now.

“For some reason, it looks like your partner is extremely angry.” The girl spoke with a strangely cool attitude.

Rentaro looked in the direction Enju had gone. “Jeez, why did she suddenly get so upset? Don’t tell me she’s already at that rebellious age…?”

“I think the reason is obvious…” She spoke as if spitting out her words into space, with a tone devoid of all emotion. Rentaro was at a loss. Because she had a calmness that didn’t match her age, it was hard to read her emotions. At the Ministry of Defense, Rentaro had thought she had a better sense of humor than that, but apparently he was wrong.

“Do you think I am strange?” the girl asked.

Realizing that he was staring, Rentaro shifted his gaze. “No, not really…”

The girl closed her eyes and put her hands to her chest. “Do not worry about it. I am used to being treated this way. I am also one of the first generation of Cursed Children. However, because I possess the Dolphin Factor in my body, I have a higher IQ and better memory than normal Initiators. My IQ is at around 210 points.”

Rentaro was startled. “You have more than twice my IQ?”

“Well, intelligence tests taken as a child have the tendency to overestimate.” She showed humility even though she was a child.

Rentaro was overwhelmed with a strange sense of defeat. “So then, you take the command and the rear guard with your brains, and Shogen is the advance guard? That’s an unusual style.”

“That is just because Shogen has muscles for brains and has no patience, so he can’t back up anyone. He still gets upset when we get battles taken from us. His way of thinking is old-fashioned and inflexible, which is problematic.” The girl broke a thin branch in two and threw the pieces into the fire.

Utterly amazed at the way she did not mince words, Rentaro looked at the shotgun lying beside her. “Let me see your gun.”

She thought for a while. “What if I say no?”

“That’s fine. If you don’t feel gratitude for being rescued, you can do that.”

Kayo looked resigned and exhaled through her nose, handing him the gun. “If there’s one thing I have learned, it is that when a good deed is done for a reward, it becomes corrupted.”

Rentaro pretended not to hear as he examined the gun. Kayo’s fully automatic shotgun with a silencer had an add-on-type grenade launcher unit on a 20-mm equipment expansion rail. Both were Shiba Heavy Weapons 2027 models. When Rentaro slung the launcher out to the right and peeked into the chamber, he frowned. Then he looked up, staring at the girl in front of him. “Why did you use explosives in the forest? This is the empty case of a 40-mm high-explosive projectile.”

It was because of that that Rentaro and Enju had been chased by a Stage Four Gastrea and almost died. In the Unexplored Territory, preserving silence was a hard and fast rule no matter what one was doing. A pair whose ranking was far above Rentaro and Enju’s should have known this. Kayo hugged her dainty knees and gazed at the fire for a while.

“Shogen and I were caught in a trap,” she said. “Thanks to that, we were not only injured, but we were also split up.”

“A trap?” said Rentaro.

“Yes. We were also dropped off in a deep forest, and inside the forest, we saw a short flickering light pattern. We thought it was an ally and approached with our guard down.” Hugging her knees harder, the girl became smaller. “If we had been more careful, we would have realized that no one would use such a dim, blue, will-o’-the-wisp-like light.”

Rentaro gulped. “What was it…?”

Kayo glanced at him and looked back into the fire. “The first thing I noticed was a rotten smell. There was an intense stink of something rotting, and a large swarm of flies had gathered. The Gastrea had disgusting flowers growing here and there, and its tail was emitting light. When it saw us, it trembled disgustingly, like it was delighted. I have seen many different kinds of Gastrea, but that stopped me in my tracks.

“Thinking I would be killed, I used the high-explosive projectile at the spur of the moment. After that, it happened as you imagined. All the Gastrea in the forest woke up, and while we were being chased, I got separated from Shogen. That was also when I was bitten on the arm. Fortunately, only a small amount of bodily fluid was injected, so it does not seem like it will have much effect.”

Rentaro put his chin in his hands as he listened to Kayo’s story. “This is just a guess, but I think that was a Firefly Gastrea.”

“A firefly?”

“Yeah, fireflies live on pollen and nectar, but did you know that there are fierce carnivorous fireflies, too? They imitate the light patterns of other fireflies and prey on the fireflies that approach them. In order to prey on humans, it probably evolved specially to emit a light pattern it thought would draw humans. You guys fell right into its trap. The plants surrounding it were probably orchids. I’ve heard that there are species that give off smells like mold, urine, and rotten meat in order to lure flies and small winged insects to them to carry their pollen… It probably synthesized a smell that would draw humans. It’s unusual to see a Gastrea mixed with a plant type. With a specimen specially evolved that much, it is probably a Stage Three.”

Kayo’s eyes widened. “Is that possible?”

“Gastrea do that in order to outwit mankind. Humans wouldn’t lose to dumb organisms.”

Kayo didn’t say anything for a while. However, when the tension in her shoulders was finally released, she let out a slow breath. “Anyway, you did a good job guessing the type for a Gastrea you didn’t even see. Are you a fan?”

“Ugh… Don’t call me that.”

“You seem like you had a gloomy childhood where you were pleased when you submerged an anthill with water. Were you like, ‘Hah, drown! It’s Noah’s great flood! Know the wrath of God!’? I imagine you had fun, huh? I understand.”

“Yeah, that’s right, that’s how it was. I killed a ton of ants, I’m sorry, all right?”

Kayo looked amused for the first time and crinkled the corners of her eyes. Then she dropped her gaze back to the fire. “But it must be nice. I do not think I would be bored if I had a Promoter like you. I am just a little jealous of Enju.”

Rentaro tried to act as nonchalant as possible as he asked, “Do you have fun with a Promoter like Shogen?”

She paused. “Initiators are tools used to kill. That is all there is to it.” Kayo did not answer Rentaro’s question. “Enju has probably never killed a person before, has she? I can tell by looking at her eyes.”

“That’s true, but you have?”

“Yes. I killed a pair that we met along the way here.”

At first, Rentaro thought he had heard her wrong. “Why did you do something like that…?”

“Shogen ordered me to. When we were lured in by the firefly’s light, if it had been another pair of humans and we had the chance, we probably would have done the same then, as well. According to Shogen, ‘I won’t let anyone else kill that jeering masked bastard.’”

Rentaro made a fist. “You don’t think anything of killing someone?”

“I was scared. My hand shook. But that was it. This was my second time. I think I will get used to it eventually.”

Anger flared inside him. Before he knew it, Rentaro had grabbed at Kayo and pushed her down. “Don’t joke around! The scariest thing about killing someone is getting used to killing. When people realize that they won’t get punished for killing someone, that’s when they forget that it’s a sin.”

“Is that something you can say because you have stained your hands with murder before? You have mysterious eyes, Satomi. It seems you have had a complicated past. They are kind, but extremely frightening eyes…”

Rentaro paused. “Hey, do you know why Enju speaks so pompously? It’s because she thinks she is doing the important job of protecting mankind that she is able to speak proudly with her head held high. Simple, isn’t she? Once, there was a time when Enju half-killed a has-been Promoter. Enju moped around the operating room the whole time, and when she heard that he had survived, she was happy the whole day and even went to visit him in the hospital. I think that’s just fine.”

“Satomi, that is just lip service.” Kayo looked up at Rentaro with a strange look in her eyes. The orange from the bonfire was reflected in her eyes.

Rentaro got up slowly and turned away from the girl. “Sorry. I don’t know why I’m saying such self-important things. Damn.”

“Why are you apologizing?”

Something grabbed the sleeve of Rentaro’s uniform tightly.

“Huh?” said Rentaro.

“Why are you apologizing even though what you are saying is right?” asked Kayo. “You are right. Please have more confidence in yourself. I feel odd right now. I do not understand this feeling. Even though I immediately thought of dozens of rebuttals to what you said, I do not want to deny the words you spoke… This is the first time I have ever felt this way.”

“Kayo…” A strange emotion welled up in Rentaro’s chest. The impression Rentaro had of her from their first meeting had not been wrong after all. As she quickly wiped her eyes on her sleeve, the chink in the armor he saw in the weak ten-year-old girl went away.

“Do you want something to drink?” Kayo said as she pulled out a kettle and some instant coffee from her pack and started boiling water.

Listening to the popping of the firewood, Rentaro looked at the ceiling. A sharp crescent moon shone in the sky that peeked in from the roof of the pillbox shelter that had collapsed in the wind. Looking around inside the house again, he saw the ruins of rusted small arms left behind by the self-defense force during the Great War.

Rentaro picked up one of the bullets that was lying by a 9-mm gun and held it above the bonfire. Deep beneath the thick rust and dirt, the brass shone, lit by the orange light. “Do you know what this is?” he asked her. “It’s called a 9-mm Parabellum. A Parabellum is—”

She cut him off. “I know what it is. It came from the Latin that meant ‘prepare for war,’ right?”

Rentaro shot a glance at Kayo. “As expected of someone with an IQ of 210. You know everything, don’t you? Yeah, it means, ‘If you seek peace, prepare for war.’”

Kayo poured some coffee into a paper cup and handed it to Rentaro. His palms gradually warmed up. Kayo held her cup with both hands and blew on it to cool it down.

“Is this the result of preparing to fight?” she asked. “Large numbers of land mines in the Unexplored Territory, large numbers of unexploded cluster bombs scattered everywhere, and after all that, all we won was this small miniature garden, far from peace.”

“It was a time when they couldn’t worry about appearances, that’s why,” said Rentaro. “But in these past ten years, they have been able to carry out proper restoration.”

“Is the restoration they are doing these days really a healthy restoration?”

For some reason, he was startled by her question. “Why do you ask that?”

“I am part of the Innocent Generation who did not know the Great War. However, in the hearts of the Stolen Generation, whose children were devoured before their eyes and whose lovers transformed into ugly Gastrea, I can see glimpses of frank hatred. Public morals and sentiments are in disorder, and there are many weapons that are made especially for slaughter, like the Stairway to Heaven.”

Looking up in the direction Kayo was pointing, he could see a ladder-shaped object that was moving behind thin clouds.

“This is no more than the tip of the iceberg,” she continued. “You have also heard of the New Humanity Creation Project, right? The project was abandoned once people realized the fighting abilities of us Cursed Children, but there were experiments in the past to create the ultimate soldiers using the power of the Varanium alloy. I heard that they were even performing experiments on people. This is something that no one would have been able to imagine in a Japan before the Great War.”

Rentaro listened without moving a muscle. Kayo stopped talking and took a sip of her coffee. “Well, the latter part I thought was just an urban legend until I saw Kagetane Hiruko,” she added.

“Relying on that kind of power is something cowards do,” said Rentaro.

“Satomi?”

Rentaro didn’t know what to say and put his coffee to his lips instead. He grimaced involuntarily at the bitterness that filled his mouth. Suddenly, he was startled by the static and roar of a rough male voice that came from the black receiver next to Kayo.

It appeared to be a radio. When Kayo turned the knob that was sticking out, the sound became clear, and turned into the voice of a man he couldn’t forget even if he wanted. “C…ome here. Hey! If you’re alive, reply!”

Kayo signaled Rentaro with her eyes. She was probably telling him not to talk. Rentaro nodded silently. It was true that it would be hard to explain to Shogen why he was here with her.

“I was worried because there was no contact from you,” she said. “I am glad you are safe, Shogen.”

“’Course you are! More importantly, Kayo, I’ve got some good news.” Shogen Ikuma stopped talking for a moment, as if about to make an important announcement. Through the radio, Rentaro could imagine him smiling under his skull-patterned face scarf. “I’ve found the masked bastard.”

Rentaro’s and Kayo’s eyes met.

“Where did you find him?” Kayo asked.

Rentaro pulled his map out of his pocket and spread it out on the ground. He quickly found the location Shogen described. An urban area near the coast? It was pretty close.

“Right now, the civil officers nearby are gathering to launch a joint surprise attack. I really want to jump the gun and act first, but well, he is ranked higher than us, and the Initiators seem reluctant. We finally decided on the plan I just told you right now. If we all split everything equally, it won’t be interesting. You should hurry up and meet up with us, too.” He disconnected without even waiting for Kayo’s answer.

Rentaro had heard rough voices and laughter behind Shogen. The attack plan was probably progressing as he had said.

Kayo immediately started packing and putting out the bonfire.

“So you’re going?” Rentaro asked her.

“Yes,” she said. “In spite of it all, he’s still my partner. What about you, Satomi?”

Rentaro became uncertain of his own feelings. If the other civil officers could take care of it, then he was inclined to rely on them to do so. He had acted cool in front of Kisara, but the fear of being half-killed by Kagetane without being able to lift a finger was only a little over a day old and wasn’t something he could forget yet. He shook his head softly. No, he had to do it himself.

Rentaro put his own personal feelings aside for a moment and analyzed the strategy objectively. The problem was how good those people Shogen had joined forces with were. Their ranks were unknown, but it didn’t seem like there were only one or two pairs behind him. There were probably at least a little under ten pairs. And among them, they even had the battle god, Shogen Ikuma, with an IP Rank of 1,584, who could fight without the assistance of his Initiator. Whether Kagetane won or the civil officers team won, it would inevitably be a fierce battle.

“How’s your arm?” Rentaro asked.

When the girl took off the bandage silently, he could see that the wound was still in the process of healing.

Rentaro looked in the direction of the town. At the very least, he should see how this battle turned out.

4:00 A.M.

Rentaro called Enju back, and the three of them left the pillbox shelter. Compared to Rentaro and Kayo, who had been snug inside with the bonfire, Enju, who had been standing watch for a long time, had better night vision by far, so he had her take the lead.

After walking for a while, there was a break in the forest, and they found themselves in an open field with a good view. If they continued that way for a few more kilometers, they would find themselves in the town, but Rentaro deliberately went around and headed for a small hill. There was nowhere to hide in the straight path to town. He decided that they needed to proceed with caution here.

As they walked, the smell of water was carried to their nostrils. The ocean was close.

Partway there, there were traces of a night camp in a place that was surrounded by tall undergrowth. They must have been afraid that there would be smoke, so there was no sign of cooking, but pouches from portable food were scattered around. It was a bigger group than he had expected.

Rentaro started to panic. Since Shogen had said they would launch a surprise attack, that meant that it would likely be a night or early-morning attack. There were only two hours left until dawn. If they had left here, then he could safely assume that they had already started their operation.

Taking their careful detour, the three of them reached the small hill where they could look down on the town. Below them, the town was eerily quiet. A countless number of fishing boats and small boats were moored in the bay bent like a crescent moon.

It was a small town that was probably worried about its decreasing population even before the Great War. Just as he thought that there would of course be no light, he saw a single light atop a white building that looked like a church. That must be the place.

Suddenly, he heard the sound of guns and gulped. The first shot signaled the start of the battle, and bursts of gunfire and the shrill sound of swords clashing continued. It had begun.

“Rentaro!” Enju screamed.

“All right,” said Rentaro. “Let’s go.”

“I will stay here,” said Kayo.

Turning in surprise, Rentaro saw Kayo with her back facing him. “Why?” The moment he called out, a four-legged beast appeared in the path where they had come, shooting out like a bullet.

Kayo released her power and clashed with it face-on, holding back its rush. Rentaro was startled. It was a deer Gastrea. There were horns piercing through its skin all over the top half of its body. Getting pierced by a number of those horns, Kayo forced her shotgun into the Gastrea’s mouth and pulled the trigger in a flash.

The Gastrea let out an eerie scream as it was blown away and stopped moving.

Kayo turned as if nothing had happened, despite the blood flowing from her stomach. “It looks like they followed us. Also, did you not hear the noise, Satomi? If no one stays here to hold them back, everyone will be wiped out whether we win or lose.”

Looking behind him after she said that, he heard low growls and shrill whistles from the thick forest they had just come out of. Awakened by the gunfire from town, the Gastrea were communicating with their friends through various frequency bands.

Kayo thrust her fully automatic shotgun into the ground with extreme calm, put down her knapsack, and took out all her extra magazines and started lining them up on the ground. She was preparing to resist to the bitter end. The wounds in her pierced arm and stomach were regenerating even as she did this.

“Then, we’ll stay, too—” Rentaro started.

Kayo rested the shotgun on her shoulder and fired a shot into the sky. Some of the shots found targets, and silhouettes that looked like monster birds gave a cry as they dropped into the forest.

“Satomi, are you stupid?” Kayo said. “The die has been cast. You two must cross the Rubicon River. In return, when you finish, please come back to assist me.”

Rentaro closed his eyes and inhaled deeply, then exhaled. If he remembered correctly, a superior commander had to make decisions in five seconds based on the ever-changing state of the war. “We’ll leave this place to you. Stop the Gastrea. But don’t try to do the impossible.”

“Do not worry. Once I am at a disadvantage, I will run away, so please take care of Shogen.”

“All right. Come on, let’s go, Enju.”

“O-okay, got it,” said Enju.

Rentaro started running. The town slowly got bigger. Seeing that the houses and small buildings had kept their original form, Rentaro could tell that the people here had abandoned their town before being attacked by Gastrea and had taken refuge in Tokyo.

Their original forms had been preserved, but not completely. Normally, in houses or buildings where the heater stops being used, when they undergo large temperature changes, after expanding and contracting over and over, the walls start to crumble. In the case of this town, in addition to the usual expansion and contraction, the salty ocean wind also corroded the base material, so the situation was even more serious.

Looking at the ruined town, Rentaro could plainly feel the weakness of a man-made environment. As Rentaro entered the town, he weaved through the shadows of the buildings. The countless moored boats were also completely rusted, and the fishing boats had been transformed into a bizarre state that made it easy to mistake them for haunted boats. Every time the wind blew, these darkness-colored silhouettes made a grating sound.

Rentaro and Enju gradually approached the vicinity of the gunshots. Rentaro’s heart pounded. His skin, which had become as sensitive as a radar, prickled every time the wind blew.

He wondered what had happened. He hadn’t heard gunshots for a while now. If they had defeated Kagetane, then someone would have given a shout of triumph. Why was it so quiet? Notice, Rentaro Satomi.

Removing the silencer that was now just an impediment, he held the XD in his right hand and the light in his left. Crossing his arms, he proceeded with the backs of his hands together. He waited to turn on the light. When he met the enemy, he could turn the light onto the enemy’s face and destroy his night vision as he fired off one-sided shots. It was a close quarters gun-battle technique called the Harries stance used by professionals.

Eventually, her feet hit something, and as Enju groped around to pick it up, she let out a short scream. An upper arm had been graphically cut off still holding a gun. It was so fresh, it looked like it would still give off steam. At that moment, a thump came from a one-story house, and Rentaro almost fired.

“My sword… Where…is my sword…?”

“You’re…Shogen…Ikuma…?”

The man with the skull-face scarf who was plunked down on the stool of the general store recognized Rentaro and slowly stood, making his way unsteadily toward him. He seemed to have lost his sight.

“’Scuse me…,” he said. “Do you…know…where my sword is…? As long as I have that, I can still fight…”

Rentaro gaped as he looked for a long time at the enormous broken sword stuck in Shogen’s back. When Shogen passed by Rentaro, he fell to his knees, coughing blood, and then fell to the ground. He did not move again. The situation was so different from what Rentaro had imagined that it took a while for his brain to process everything.

Shogen was dead? One of the highest IP rankers, with a ranking of 1,584? Rentaro gripped his XD and apologized to Kayo in his heart. Finding Shogen’s backup gun at his waist, Rentaro examined it quickly. A Smith & Wesson automatic gun, Sigma. Seeing that it was fully loaded with .40-caliber Varanium bullets, Rentaro tucked it in his belt and stood up. He stopped at the corner that led to the street. “Enju, we’re going out onto the street. However, no matter what you see, you cannot scream.”

“How much worse can it get, Rentaro?” she asked.

Rentaro did not answer. Because they were downwind, he had been smelling the rich smell of blood for a while now. Holding his gun ready, he ran out into the street.

Enju gasped. “Rentaro… What is this…?”

The closest thing was only a few meters ahead. It was the head of an Initiator that had been cut off and rolled onto the ground. It looked at them with a permanent expression of shock. Farther down was a pile of Initiator and Promoter corpses piled on top of each other. These had been killed quickly with a gun. The street had turned into a sea of blood. Among the corpses, Rentaro saw a few faces he had seen at the Ministry of Defense. Rentaro bit his lip and tried desperately to stay upright in the midst of the choking stink as his knees threatened to give way.

Another hundred meters ahead, he could see an open door leading into the church. The candlesticks on the wall burned brightly with flames. The holy cross hanging overhead looked coldly down at the picture of hell below.

At that moment, he heard a familiar voice come from the pier. “Papa, I’m astonished. He really is still alive.”

The Kagetane pair was standing at the tip of the pier, gazing at the surface of the ocean. One had two swords at her waist and was wearing a black dress. The other was the mysterious man wearing a wine-red tailcoat, mask, and silk hat.

Rentaro could not believe his eyes. That pair had intercepted many skillful attackers and had eliminated all of them, yet neither had a single scratch. Rentaro was tormented by an intense regret and took a step back.

Why didn’t he wait until he could call for the support of other civil officers? He had faced the pair a number of times and had been plainly shown their superhuman strength each time. Even if he hadn’t, the outcome of the battle was clear when Shogen Ikuma was killed without being able to do a thing. At that time, Rentaro could have still turned around and run away.

After wasting both chances he had, he was now in the worst possible situation. It was too late to run now. “Kagetane…,” he said. “Where is the case…?!”

“I knew you would come.” A lukewarm wind blew on Rentaro’s skin. With the moon behind him, Kagetane Hiruko turned around with a gun in both hands, opening his arms wide with benevolence. “The final curtain is near. Let’s settle this, Satomi.”